The use of computers for Internet and other communication purposes, particularly in relation to electronic mail and the downloading of applications over the Internet has led to the proliferation of so-called computer viruses. Whilst anti-virus programs have been developed to combat these, they can be relatively elaborate and expensive and usually operate to deal with an offending virus only after the operating system of the computer has been infected. There are so many variants of virus programs being released that anti-virus programs cannot identify new viruses quickly enough.
The present invention seeks to provide an improved method of preventing the infection of a computer by a virus program.
According to the present invention there is provided a method of controlling write access to a storage medium by monitoring an application; detecting an attempt by the application to write data to said storage medium; interrogating a rules database in response to said detection; and controlling write access to the storage medium by the application in dependence on said interrogation.